Hot Topics:

Boulder County sees increase in hate crime reports

Boulder County DA wants to "build confidence in the victim communities that they can make the reports"

By Mitchell Byars

Staff Writer

Posted:
11/15/2017 02:23:56 PM MST

Updated:
11/15/2017 10:32:29 PM MST

Graffiti on a fence, including swastikas, is pictured near 15th Avenue and Centennial Drive in Longmont in July 2016. (Matthew Jonas / Staff Photographer)

Hate crime statistics

Boulder Police Department: 4 in 2016, 1 in 2015

Longmont Police Department: 3 in 2016, 2 in 2015

University of Colorado Police Department: 6 in 2016, 1 in 2015

Boulder County Sheriff's Office: 2 in 2016, 3 in 2015

Erie Police Department: 1 in 2016, none in 2015

Nederland Police Department: 1 in 2016, none in 2015

Statistics via the FBI

Boulder County saw an increase in the amount of hate crimes reported last year, which is in line with increases in bias-motivated incidents across the country.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation released its report on hate crime statistics for the year 2016, which saw more than 6,100 incidents nationwide — a 5 percent increase from 2015.

While the numbers are small, several departments in Boulder County saw increases in hate crimes as well. The University of Colorado Police Department reported six hate crimes — two involving race, three involving religion and one involving sexual orientation. The Boulder Police Department reported four incidents — two involving race, one involving religion and one involving sexual orientation.

University of Colorado spokesman Scott Pribble said four of the six incidents reported at CU involved people writing derogatory terms on residence hall dry erase boards, while the other two cases involved bathroom graffiti and extortion.

Advertisement

Boulder police spokeswoman Laurie Ogden said while the FBI report listed four incidents, the department actually had six cases. Three involved graffiti or vandalism, one involved a harassing phone call, one involved a man yelling racial slurs and the last one involved a handicapped male who said someone stole his pants.

In 2015, Boulder and CU police each reported only one incident and didn't report any incidents in 2014.

Longmont reported three incidents in 2016 after two in 2015, while the Boulder County Sheriff's Office was the only agency to see a decrease, with two reported in 2016 and three in 2015.

Erie and Nederland each reported one incident after not reporting any in 2015, while Broomfield, Lafayette and Louisville reported no hate crimes in 2016.

Boulder County District Attorney Stan Garnett said that the numbers were too small to make any definitive conclusions. But he said that an increase in hate crimes reported may actually be a positive sign that is indicating more people are coming to the authorities.

"Hate crimes are like sexual assaults in that we think they occur more often then they are reported, and we need to build confidence in the victim communities that they can make the reports," Garnett said. "We're cautiously hopeful that the increase in reporting reflects more confidence in law enforcement."

Jeremy Shaver, the associate regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, agreed that an increase in reported hate crimes could be interpreted as a rise in hate crimes or just a rise in people reporting hate crimes.

"The increase can be an indicator of both of those things — that reporting is improving but that there is also a true increase in the number of incidents happening," he said.

Colorado as a state actually saw a slight decrease in hate crimes reported, with 229 in 2016 after 234 in 2015. But Shaver said he thinks those numbers are misleading.

"We were surprised, because all other things pointed to an increase," he said. "At the ADL, we've seen a sharp increase in antisemitic incidents, and through the work we are doing with a number of community partners, we've anecdotally heard of a pretty steep increase in hate incidents and crime."

Shaver pointed out that reporting for the FBI survey was voluntary, and in fact five police departments that serve cities with more than 100,000 people — Arvada, Lakewood, Greeley, Thornton and Westminster — reported zero incidents or failed to report at all.

"We do not believe that is always a credible report," he said. "In communities with a large, diverse population, it is highly unlikely there were no hate incidents or hate crimes. We want to work with those law enforcement agencies to find out if there truly have been no reports or if there are other factors at play."

More than half of the 4,229 racially motivated crimes in the U.S. in 2016 were against black people, while Jews were targeted in more than half of the 1,538 crimes that were motivated by religion. Crimes fueled by bias against LGBT people rose from 203 in 2015 to 234 last year.

In releasing the figures, the FBI said hate crimes remain the "number one investigative priority" of its civil rights unit and pledged to continue collecting data on the problem.

On Monday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the Justice Department is awaiting a full report from a task force on steps it can take to improve training for prosecutors and investigators, boost data collection on hate crimes and partner with local officials and communities. In the meantime, Sessions said, the department can continue to aggressively prosecute people who violate the civil rights of others.

"The Department of Justice is committed to ensuring that individuals can live without fear of being a victim of violent crime based on who they are, what they believe, or how they worship," he said in a statement.

Garnett said he is worried that the numbers for 2017 will be even higher.

"We are concerned because the change in the tone of the national discussion on issues like this has troubled us a lot, and I think has troubled law enforcement in every part of the country," Garnett said. "With the rise of the nationalist white supremacist movement and increased rhetoric around that, we are seeing more hate crimes.

"It's a very important issue for law enforcement, and it is the responsibility of law enforcement to maintain the rule of law and keep the community safe."

Article Comments

We reserve the right to remove any comment that violates our ground rules, is spammy, NSFW, defamatory, rude, reckless to the community, etc.

We expect everyone to be respectful of other commenters. It's fine to have differences of opinion, but there's no need to act like a jerk.

Use your own words (don't copy and paste from elsewhere), be honest and don't pretend to be someone (or something) you're not.

Our commenting section is self-policing, so if you see a comment that violates our ground rules, flag it (mouse over to the far right of the commenter's name until you see the flag symbol and click that), then we'll review it.

The Boulder alt-country band gives its EPs names such as Death and Resurrection, and its songs bear the mark of hard truths and sin. But the punk energy behind the playing, and the sense that it's all in good fun, make it OK to dance to a song like "Death." Full Story